Afraid that clause (grammar)
Hi,
I’d like to know what auxiliary verbs can come behind “afraid that subject”.
For example, I’m afraid that if I cancel the plan, my friend will/may/should/would/might... be mad at me (in the future), so I won’t cancel it.
What auxiliary verbs can I use in That clause?
Thanks in advance.
Search from various English teachers...
Answers · 4
1
"will" "may" and "might" all work well with your (first conditional) example sentence.
I'm afraid that if I cancel my plan, you will/may/might be mad.
To use "would" or "could", you would need to use second conditional, and change "cancel" to "canceled"
I'm afraid that if I canceled my plan, you would/could get mad.
I would only say "I'm afraid that you should" if I'm giving advice that I know you won't like.
"I know you hate exercise, but if you don't want to have another heart attack, I'm afraid that you should/need to/have to start exercising much more."
0
"might"
0
I don't think there is any grammatical restriction. Logically, I can't think of an example for 'should'.
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